


Priorities

by Tailspin



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Oblivious Haruno Sakura, PWP, Polyamory, pwp with a little plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-04 14:00:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17305919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tailspin/pseuds/Tailspin
Summary: Sai likes Sakura. Sakura likes Sai. Sasuke refuses to leave it at that.





	1. Chapter 1

Sai likes Sakura best. 

He doesn’t mention it, because he’s not sure if it’s okay to.  He’s not so good at social rules, like that, and he doesn’t want to ruin things. But he likes her best.

He likes her hands, how strong they are and how ragged the fingernails are from the work she puts them through. How soft they are, because of the healing chakra she channels through them. 

He likes her legs, the muscles she worked hard for that flex and strain when they train. They’re stocky and short and sturdy, and she’s always the last one standing at the end of an exhausting training session of all of team seven. 

He likes her hair, likes the pink sheen and the sweat that clings to it by the end of a fight. Likes the length of it, how it frames her face. 

He likes that she’s ugly. That her hair and her eyes and clothes never match. She stands out, like that, and looks sincere- not like when missions make them dress formal and pretty and stylish. That’s not Sakura. Sakura is bright reds and blue-greens and practical clothing. He likes  _ Sakura. _

He doesn’t think she likes him best back, but that’s okay. It doesn’t need to be equal. She just can’t send him away. 

He tries to be useful. Tries to be funny. He doesn’t know if it works.

 

And then they’re together, as a team, and Naruto says that he’s her favorite, right, Sakura-chan? And she laughs, and says no, Naruto, you’re not her favorite. 

“Aw, come on, why not?” 

And Sakura smiles, and her eyes meet Sai’s for the briefest of seconds, and nobody else notices- because nobody else pays attention, and he hates that- but she’s honest when she says, “Because Sai’s never left me.”

He waits to let it show that the words hit him, until he’s alone and his training itches less at the muscles of his face, and he lets out a shakey breath and a shakier smile. Because she’d meant it.  _ He was her favorite.  _ Because he didn’t leave her, and she didn’t want him to leave, and he never wanted to either, so- so. 

Mutual. It’s a weird word, to roll around on his tongue, and it doesn’t sit right. He doesn’t  _ want  _ mutual, he wants to give. He wants to give her- security, and peace, and the smiles she gives when she’s just thrown a man into a mountain and the mountain gave a shudder. He wants to give, and he wants her to take, and he doesn’t know how to do that. 

So he asks her, because she knows more than him, about these things. Just like he knows more about inks and deaths and difficult choices- she knows about people and living and what the sensations in his chest mean. 

\--

It starts with Sai. It makes Sasuke uncomfortable, this blankfaced man who always gets a spark of interest to his eyes when he looks at Sakura. The way he’s always with her, next to her, chasing her around- the polar opposite of what she’s used to, and he can see how much she likes it. Likes him. Likes Sai and the way he clings to her, trusts her, asks her for advice and doesn’t mind when she vents. Sasuke wouldn’t mind doing those things either, not now- he’s always been one for obsessions and his last one just died, after all. But he doesn’t like coming in second, and it started with Sai. 

Not fair. That’s how it feels, to his core, when Sakura’s eyes drift past him and linger on Sai. She teases their teammate for his clothes but it’s never a complaint, is it, Sakura? Not like when she makes fun of Naruto’s terrible taste in orange. Not like that at all. 

Her hands wander with Sai. She brushes at his hair and tweaks his nose and inspects him after training with a casual air that drives Sasuke mad because she’s never like that with the rest of them, certainly not him. He remembers when they were younger and she’d try to cling at him and he knows that’s how Sakura is- physically affectionate, like Naruto, the pair of them prone to hugs and highfives and cuddling, but she doesn’t do that with Naruto anymore and she doesn’t try with him like she used to- she keeps a polite distance from them all, except Sai.  _ Sai  _ gets the full force of her attentions, because he’s never pushed her off or left her behind, so she knows it’s welcome, and it’s so obvious she’s reveling in that. 

She has a hand on his back when they talk, slings his arm around her neck when they’re walking to the ramen store, they’re drifting behind the pack but it’s almost like it’s intentional. Like they’re a new set. Team Seven has always been fractured, regardless of what Naruto seems to think, and it’s probably not fair for Sasuke to get upset when Sakura finally gets to be part of a pair instead of straggling behind and trying to make room for a third where there isn’t one, but he’s never promised to be fair and he hates it. 

She’s supposed to do the hard part, here, because he’s spent the past seven years in a village run by a mad man, and he doesn’t have the slightest idea how to  _ start  _ trying to win a girl over, not when it always happened by accident. Unwanted. Now he’s ready for it, ready to settle down, ready to pay attention, eager even, though he hates to admit it- and he’s too late. (Except he isn’t, which is worse; because it means he can still do something now, and it’s not like he couldn’t do something later if they did get together, he’d never promised to be fair, has never been keen on ethics when they get in his way, but- how? What is he supposed to do to change things?) 

He’s not used to this, any of it, and the coils in his gut grow tighter and tighter every time he’s reminded how lost he is by the sight of Sai getting what he  _ wants  _ so easily. 


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura likes Sasuke. Even after all this time, and she doesn’t try to avoid it- she  _ knows  _ it’s foolish, knows it’s not worth pursuing, that it says abysmal things about her self-esteem, but it’s the truth. She likes Sasuke-kun, doesn’t know how to stop liking him, his pretty eyes or his effortless talent or his determination. His hands are always rough, his posture deceptively loose, and he bears the sense of a man impersonating a god and coming half-close. Having seen Uchiha Itachi in action only once, she can’t say she doesn’t have her suspicions for who that god might be.

 

She likes Sasuke, but she loves Sai. It’s funny, because people seem to think of them as similar, but she can’t seem to make the connection. Sai is friendly, in his own way, desperate for friends where Sasuke refused them. Sai likes to ask questions, trusts her judgement when she gives him answers. Sai is pretty and lithe and reminds her of fairytales she’s not allowed to mention to others, because they’re from her grandmother’s homeland in Kiri and she’s not supposed to remind people that she’s  _ different,  _ but he still makes her think of water spirits and gentle tricks played on cocky shinobi maidens. She likes his chest, embarrassingly enough, not just for the obvious muscles but also for the obvious scars- like her, he’s failed before. Not like their teammates, not in a way that doesn’t  _ hurt.  _ He’s failed, faced repercussions, and he’s survived, and she finds it familiar and beautiful at once. Sai is kind at his worst and cruel at his best, and he makes ethereal art into a weapon and all Sakura can do is look at the chakra scalpels she favors in precision fights and can only think  _ me too.  _ Sai is better than her, she knows, and she loves him for that too. 

\--

It’s not obscene. It’s not even shameful. They’re just outside the civilian shops and halfway down a path towards shinobi ones, and it’s a discreet enough spot for something far filthier than they attempt. 

She takes the lead, of course she does, it’s obvious the boy has no clue what to do. They stop, not suddenly but not slowly, as if it’s a natural pause, and she forgets to finish her sentence, and then she leans up on the slightest of tip-toes to press a kiss to Sai’s lips. Sai’s eyes go wide, but he does his best to return it, and he takes her hand in his when he does and it’s obvious the gesture more than makes up for the awkwardness of the kiss. He’s fumbling at it like he’s heard of kissing but never seen it, much less tried it before, and Sakura at times seems to forget that it’s similarity to CPR in appearance is entirely different in execution. They’re both a bit of mess. She laughs, just a little, when she draws back, sinks her heels back to the ground, and presses her forehead against his shoulder. 

“That was my first.” She says, not exactly a statement, and he says, “Me too.” 

“I could tell.” She tells him, and then they’re both laughing. Rusty laughs, long trapped in their throats, finally let loose, and it’s a beautiful sound. First kisses at twenty is a funny thing, with no emergency on their tail. Civilians try as children, cautious and curious with little to loose, but shinobi often wait too late. In the passion of battle, in a moment of panic-  _ warbabies,  _ Grandnan Makasa used to say,  _ come from idiots being forced to finally admit they love each other, and feeling like they’ve got nothing left to lose.  _ Sasuke is still pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to overhear that particular annecodate as a kid. 

It’s only after they’ve left, moved forward to finish their errand, that Sasuke realizes his sharingan is active and slips it back away, fuming. He has little doubt that Sakura had been saving that kiss for  _ him,  _ and it’s another theft to pile onto the painter-brat’s back. He’d never been invested in the idea, before, but he can’t help but think about the trail it leads down, especially for shinobi. 

It was sweet. It makes him furious. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when the fic is done i'll go back and edit the chapters together into longer, more cohesive parts, but until then i figure more ppl would be interested in more frequent content output.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i promised misunderstandings and porn and i delivered

It’s not long after their first kiss that Sai comes to a realization: he can’t keep her.

Not because he doesn’t want to. He wants to more than anything. Her kisses are like reminders of the sun on his skin, and her attention, her  _ focus,  _ is like the enveloping warmth of a hot spring. He wants to live with her, and grow old with her, and if he has to die- because Sakura has been emphasising that he shouldn’t go through life with the assumption that he’s meant to die young and painful- he wants to do it next to her. But he can’t go forever in the daze of a lucky boyfriend, and eventually, he notices Sasuke.

The way Sasuke looks at her, at them both. The way Sasuke acts. The grimaces and flickering, failing eye contact. It’s not difficult to understand. 

It’s not fair to Sakura, but he knows that she loved Sasuke for years before she even met him, and how can he trust her to decide she likes this  _ new  _ option better when the original is finally available? He can’t. He just can’t. 

But he’s not willing to just  _ give up,  _ either, and so he comes up with a plan. It’s simple.

“Sakura likes it when boys kiss.” He says, and Sasuke is so caught off guard at the words that he freezes, and Sai slams him to the ground. The only way to get the Uchiha to stick around was to challenge him to a duel, likely because he spends most of his time looking at Sai and wishing he could pummel him. Sai can’t blame him- he’d feel the same way, if their positions were reversed. It’s why he’s doing this.

“She tries to hide it, but Tenten-san keeps giving her books that I find in her closet.” 

“So what?” The Traitor asks, and Sai snorts. 

“I want to make her happy.” Sai says, and it’s not a lie. It’s just that it’s more selfish than that. “I know you do too.” 

(The calculation is instantaneous. Sasuke can tell this is a more desperate act than it seems, and he’s fine taking advantage of that. This is an opportunity.) 

\--

When Sai tells her he wants her help with something, she agrees. 

Then he tells her what it is, and it  _ hurts.  _

She’d thought they were doing so well.  _ Shows what you know,  _ a part of her whispers judgmentally, and she can’t argue with it. She can’t even be mad that Sai’s breaking up with her in the same breath that he’s asking for help, because he’s asking, and that’s a big step for him. That’s important, and she’s clinging, a little, to the fact that he must still trust her a lot to come to her with this. 

So Sai wants to try something with a boy. The implication that he doesn’t want to try something with  _ her  _ feels clear, even if he hasn’t said it. Then he tells her that the boy is Sasuke, and it’s like everything clicks into place.

Sai and- oh. Sasuke. That makes so much sense. Suddenly, Sakura is remembering how annoying she was as a child, how little time Sasuke seemed to have for her antics and how much more he always had for Naruto’s- how he sometimes fixated on impressing Kakashi. God, but she feels like an idiot. It’s so obvious in retrospect.

Still. He better be nice to Sai. As nice as he can manage. 

“I really think someone else would be better suited for Sasuke’s sake-” Sakura says, and Sai tilts his head questioningly. 

“He already agreed you’re the only one he’d trust with this.”

God, but of course, who else does Sasuke even trust? If she had to pick between a medical professional and an ex crush she’d choose the same, as painful as the reminder how  _ unsexual  _ she must appear to him to be an option at all is. 

So she shows up at Sasuke’s house right behind Sai, and doesn’t think about how this is the first time she’s been invited her despite them being teammates for years. That it reminds her a little of Sai’s place on the inside, well ordered and stylized, not like her cluttered mess of an apartment at all, and of course she should’ve seen this coming because she’s a terrible fit for either of them and she’s a terrible girlfriend for not having noticed sooner. 

She tries, very hard, to keep things professional. If they feel desperate enough to ask for her help, she has little doubt that they well and truly need it. She sits to the side, keeps her hands folded neatly in her lap, and avoids eye contact. Sasuke’s got a bed big enough for at least two teams, and she lets the gulf between them all feel natural. 

“Um. Hello.” She says, regretting it instantly, but Sasuke just grunts something akin to a hello as well, and then he tugs Sai towards him and kisses him- terribly, to be honest. Sakura stiffles a snort because he’s even worse than she had been, and she doesn’t want to judge but it’s hard not to when that’s kind of why she’s _ there _ . Then both of them are looking at her, and the laugh dies, but Sai pulls back and says, 

“Ugly, show him.” 

The weird part is that Sasuke doesn’t argue, he just sits there,  _ looking,  _ which is practically an order to match. “I don’t think that’s really- I mean.” She stammers, and Sai gestures. “You taught me.” He explains, and it stings a little, the reminder that she thought they were  _ together  _ but she’s still second best, but she shoves that aside because it’s also true. So she sighs, like this is a nuisance, not the sort of thing she’d daydreamed about for years, and leans in to kiss Sasuke. 

 

It feels- wrong, almost. She has to guide him carefully, drag his hands away from her chest-  _ idiot _ \- and up to her shoulders before placing her hands on his neck without even considering it might set off some of his nerves, but it doesn’t so she calls it a win, and it’s only when she finally pulls back to breath and managed to twist his fervent attempts into something soft enough the partner can enjoy it without worrying about losing a tongue, that she realizes his eyes have been open the entire time. “There.” She says. “Like that.” 

“Tch.” Sasuke replies, but when Sai pulls him back in for a kiss- over her shoulder, and she has to wriggle backwards to avoid getting stuck between them- he’s obviously using the new technique. 

Sakura manages to fold back semi-comfortably, leaning against the wall where Sasuke has shoved his bed to the corner. She’s half tempted to sit on her hands, but that would be too  _ obvious  _ a sign of control, and she’s trying to seem as devoid of interest in this as possible for their sakes, so she keeps her hands at her side and tries to only half-watch her first love and her current one slip from kissing to what  _ must  _ count as foreplay. She’s pretty sure if they tried anything that intense in public they’d get arrested. 

 

Then Sasuke’s yanking Sai’s pants and underwear down in one quick move, and Sakura doesn’t even have time to  _ react  _ to the sight- fucking hell, she finally knows why he’s been calling Naruto dickless all these years- before he’s flipping Sai over and pulling his own clothes out of the way and-

“Wait!” she yelps, diving forward on instinct. Both look up at her, confused, and she doesn’t even have time to be embarrassed because her heart is in her throat for all the wrong reasons. 

“What the hell are you doing?” She asks, and Sasuke replies with all the confidence in the world, 

“Fucking him.”

“You don’t- you haven’t- oh my  _ god. _ ” Sakura groans, and then she gestures at Sasuke’s dick- and god, is that distracting, that it’s right there and hard and  _ Sasuke’s _ , but this feels like an emergency so she’s able to compartmentalize and say, “You don’t jack off without- without lube, or something, right?” 

Sasuke grunts. She’s going to assume that’s a yes and keep going. “So why would you try and fuck without any?”

Sasuke does not say anything, but the tips of his ears are turning red, and Sakura can only hope that means he’s realizing he was about to make a big mistake. “Can you both just. Slow down for a second. Because I feel like there’s some stuff we need to cover first.” 

Sai looks up from his awkward, splayed position, and says, “I think that would be a good idea.” 

When he doesn’t move, Sakrua nudges him upwards, until he leans back and ends up sitting vaguely pressed against Sasuke, and she shuffles back again. There. Boundaries. She’s very proud at herself for keeping up those boundaries. Even though now she can see Sai’s dick again, and it’s absolutely massive, distractingly so, and it’s leaking a little at the tip, and- 

“First, you  _ definitely  _ need lube. A lot of lube. For both your sakes’.” 

“I wouldn’t need it to fuck  _ you _ .” Sasuke argues, and she draws in a sharp breath before playing it off as annoyance because she  _ knows  _ that he just means on an anatomical level, despite the image that it presents. 

“Yeah, well, things are different with a pussy involved, and you still wouldn’t be able to go fucking full hog like that, so maybe let’s focus on the practical.” She says, and barely stumbles over the word pussy, to her immense pride. Maybe next time Tsunade tries to make her teach sex ed she’ll be able to get through it without the other jounin laughing. Or maybe she’ll remember this exact moment and die of mortification mid-sentence.  “Also, protection- are you both clean?” She asks, and they both frown at her in a way that so obviously means they have no idea. 

“I don’t believe it’s possible for me to get pregnant.” Sai questions. 

“That makes two of us, and yet protection is still an important thing to discuss, because it’s mostly a concern about  _ passing on diseases.  _ You can do what you want in the end, it’s your choice, but if either of have the chance to be carrying something-”

“You can’t have kids?” Sai interrupts, and it’s the fact he just sounds curious, not upset or judgemental, that makes her actually stop to the answer. She’s used to that sentence being a lot...crueler, even from friends. 

“When civilians join the academy, it’s standard procedure.” She explains. Avoids looking at Sasuke when she continues, “They want to make sure they’re not going to waste their training on kids looking to marry into a clan and pop out babies instead of serve as shinobi.”

“Oh.” Sasuke says, but she doesn’t look up to see why. 

“Look, I just- can we focus? On you two?” Sakura clarifies, begging just a little, because both of them are looking at her with far more focus than she could appreciate, and they’re  _ still  _ both hard despite the detour, which she’s both trying to avoid noticing and also painfully aware of, and so finally she manages to place a hand on both their shoulders, scan very quickly, and let out a sigh of relief. “You’re both clean. If you want to go in- um- unsealed, as it were, it’s. Safe.”

 

For a second it seems like she might not need to interfere anymore, because Sai has managed to grab some lube and she focuses on Sai, on his face, and maybe it’s weird they’re staring at each other, but she can’t bear to watch Sasuke stroke his dick a foot away from her and not react without pretending it’s not happening at all, ignores his little groans and sighs until he’s reaching for Sai and- 

“Stop, stop.” She tells him, scoots over, because he was about to ram his whole hand into Sai and even with half a bottle of lube dripping on said hand there’s no chance that could end well. “You can’t just- the whole point is to stretch things out _. _ ”

‘Show me.” Sasuke demands, and honestly, fine, at this point, it feels only logical she’d have to do this too. She takes the bottle from him and coats her fingers, and then pauses.

“Sai, you like, cleaned out your-”

“Yes.” He cuts her off. 

“Oh thank god.” There  _ is  _ a limit on how much she’ll do for them, teammates or not. “Okay. Like this.” She says, and she starts with just one finger. Sai shudders, and she positions him a little more carefully to make this easier for the both of them, flat on his back but his hips canting up and sometimes she’s just so  _ relieved  _ everyone she knows has got the muscles to back up just about anything. “You have to go slow.” She adds, more for Sai’s benefit than Sasuke’s, because he’s already trying to push back and she  _ knows  _ it can’t be a comfortable fit yet. 

It feels weird, but not totally foreign, to drag her finger out and then back in again, and she coos something nonsensical when Sai makes a noise. She’s used to having to comfort patients, and she doubts this even hurts. It doesn’t take long until she’s worked him up to a second finger, and she tries to keep how much she’s enjoying it out of her voice when she explains, “There’s a spot to aim for, Sasuke-kun, just a little to the left for him.” She’s hitting it with relatively precision, and it’s obvious how well it’s working. Sai keeps rolling down to meet her fingers, and his throat is barred from how far back his head is tilting and it’s only with a little hesitation that she stops. 

“Three fingers should be enough.” She says, and then pauses. There’s no polite way to say this but it feels important, given how many mistakes they already made up until this point. “If you, um, ever switch positions- which is totally normal! Nothing to be ashamed of, but um, if you do, the thing is, you’ll need. A lot more prep.” She mumbles the last part, because she’s trying, but it’s difficult to get across the key point without explicitly stating,  _ Sasuke, your dick is way smaller than Sai’s, and if he tried to fuck you after just three skinny fingers your ass would probably murder you.  _ Sai must understand what she means, though, because he cackles, and calls out, “Hear that, traitor? Maybe I should call  _ you  _ dickless instead.” 

Sasuke flicks Sai’s dick from where it’s bobbing in front of them both, and Sai yelps but doesn’t roll away. God, but she loves these idiots, and the thought barely stings in the moment because it’s too true to hurt. 

So she pulls back- again, it’s starting to feel like a waste of time, because she already has to readjust their positions and that means moving back towards them, and she gently pushes at Sai’s back. “That’s not a great position for this.” She suggests, and for a second it’s just  _ nice.  _ She’s acting on instinct, sweeps some of the hair out of his eyes, and he smiles at her like she hung the moon. And then things are weird, because Sasuke is still there, next to her, and he’s got a hand on her thigh and he’s had it there for at least a minute before she noticed, and he mutters something that she can’t make out before tilting her head to look at him.

“Can you get on with it?” He says. Sakura gulps, trying to figure out why he’s bothering to include her at all, before turning back to Sai. 

“It’s probably easier if you- um.” She freezes, trying to figure out how to proceed without having to say the words. Finally she turns back to Sasuke, and pushes him down onto the bed. Something in his gaze flickers, but she doesn’t bother trying to understand what it means, instead focuses on getting him to lay still on his back, and then looks at Sai. 

“Oh.” Sai says, and then he smiles. “Yeah, I can do that.” 

He slides down slow, and Sasuke’s hips half-stutter upwards before he reigns in the impulse, but they quickly fall into a matching rhythm. This time Sakura doesn’t even think to pull back, just sits there next to them, a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder and another on Sai’s thigh, and they’re both making these pretty little gasps and sighs and groans, and Sai’s eyes keep going half lidded and hazey while Sasuke switches from staring to squeezing his eyes shut at a particularly jarring motion, and Sakura knows she’s breathing heavy but she doubts they’re in the right mind to notice at this point, and then sai is pulling her forward into a kiss and all she can think is yes,  _ yes, fuck, please-  _

And she’s only dimly aware when it stops that she must’ve misunderstood things, which is a thought that barely has time to process before Sai is kissing her again, and she slides her hand down, still slick from the lube, to wrap around his dick, and it’s straining against her, would take both hands to actually hold the width of the whole thing but she’s not ready to let her other hand slip out from where Sasuke is holding it and she’s got no idea when that happened but it feels right, perfect, and she struggles to match their rythm that’s falling apart the longer this goes on but she doesn’t come far off from it, and then Sai’s cumming, mouth going slack in their kiss and her stomach and chest feel warm and sticky and wet, and then Sasuke is groaning and his grip on her hand is crushing and he curls up and he’s actually smiling, for once, and it’s such a good thing to see that Sakura turns to face him and kisses at his neck, his check, his throat, and it’s only when she feels Sai press his lips against the nape of her neck and Sasuke turns his face to catch her kiss and return it that she finally,  _ finally  _ comes. 

 

\--

 

It’s a day later, and it’s played off as another training session, but for once neither of them want to fight. 

“She’s popular.” Sasuke says. It’s probably true, if not as true as it holds for clan girls like Hinata and Ino. Sai does not point this out. 

“If we stopped now, she’d go find some other boys-” Sai continues the thought, and they both refuse to finish it. 

“You’re okay in a fight.” Sasuke offers. 

“You’re not terrible either.” 

“Let’s go find Sakura.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> would've had sakura mention safewords but 1) shes also a virgin and thus not an expert and is just doing her best as the most educated out of the three of them & 2) shes basically their safeword?? which does not work in real life but like genuinely they're both trusting her to interfere if either of them starts to space out or otherwise looks uncomfortable plus...literally her stopping them every two seconds to say Please do not Do THAT for safety concerns

**Author's Note:**

> with roots and blossoms, now you just need a little wood.   
> \- dick joke i considered for the title before i changed my mind.   
> actual porn & sakura's side of things in future chapters. let me know if there's any kink/etc in particular you'd want to see and i'll consider it!


End file.
